This is only scratching the surface of what I know can be accomplished in 3d programming. Virtually every part of Maya can be controlled with code. Various areas of interest for me are cities, futuristic things, old/retro things, random detailing, scattering of objects (either randomly or in a controlled fashion), procedural modeling, texturing, lighting, animation, dynamics and so much more.

Oddly enough I rejected 3d several years ago, and I still prefer a real brush and paint to digital tools. However, I enjoy programming too and have been diving right in with Python to control Maya.

As many of you probably know, this is the kind of thing that can help in making a city or town shot, crowds, junkyards, destruction, etc. - including (but not limited to) duplication and scattering of several approved objects/assets into hundreds or thousands of instances with subtle changes, randomizing detail to bring up realism, controlled placement of detail assets in a scene such as 'roof kits', populating a 3d scene with whatever! :) It can also get you started as an idea generation tool, just to give you unpredictable (or predictable!) shapes and assets to start your brainstorming and artistic exploration of concepts. I've already got another function written that makes ribbon/vine-sque shapes. So cool to watch it generate.

I was inpsired by the Citybot program they used in King Kong to build New York City. I also discovered the possibilities of Python when I used it recently to write a program that saves me time at work by doing some of the monotonous, repetitive tasks for me. Go Python! I also wrote code for a friend to solve a problem he was having at work, and dare I say it... now he has a 'dummy proof' tool that can be reused for the next ten years or more. Heh, that's what he wanted in his words, a dummy proof tool, but he's no dummy.

Anyway, this is something I'm doing in spare time for fun. Hope to hear from some of you guys. Any matte painters or others out there that have any questions, comments, requests... feel free to get in touch.